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We've added Multiple Favorites to Varsity Stats

You can now have more than one favorite in the NewsOK Varsity Stats app. Multiple favorites gives you quick and easy access to all of your favorite Football teams.

Clicking on the "Make Favorite" button at the top of any team page will add that team to your list of favorites.

Accessing Favorites
Once you have chosen at least one favorite (or if you already had a favorite), you will have a new menu option "My Team". This menu will give you quick access to all of your favorite teams.

There is also a new "My Teams Page", in the "My Teams" menu, click the option "My Teams (Favorites) Page", this will take you to the "My Teams" page where yoy can get a quick overview of your teams. Clicking on any of the teams listed here will take you to that teams page.

Managing Favorites
On the new "My Teams Page", click the "Edit My Teams" button. You can delete any of the teams you no longer want to keep as a favorite.

Oklahoma offensive lineman Ty Darlington is not worried about the possible distraction with the return of linebacker Frank Shannon and running back Joe Mixon to the team after one-year suspensions stemming from allegations of violence against women.
In fact, he thinks it will drive the Sooners.
“I don’t think so,” Darlington said. “I think that now we’re focused, we’re ready to go. If anything,...

Oklahoma offensive lineman Ty Darlington is not worried about the possible distraction with the return of linebacker Frank Shannon and running back Joe Mixon to the team after one-year suspensions stemming from allegations of violence against women.
In fact, he thinks it will drive the Sooners.
“I don’t think so,” Darlington said. “I think that now we’re focused, we’re ready to go. If anything, I think that we’re just motivated by everything. All of the potential distractions, I think it’s just time for us to cast them aside and focus in.”
Darlington was honored as OU’s recipient of the Oklahoma Chapter of the National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete award at Tuesday’s 31st annual All Sports Scholar Athlete Awards luncheon.
Afterward, he spoke of how the team welcomed both players back. He said both have been impressive in workouts and he was particularly happy to see Shannon back with the team.
“I love Frank Shannon, man,” Darlington said. “We missed him last year and I think the whole team — just beyond as a player, but as a person — we’re happy to have him back. He’s a brother and he’s family. We got to welcome one back in that wasn’t able to be with us for a year.”
Shannon was accused of sexually assaulting a female student at his off-campus apartment in January 2014. He was never charged criminally, but was suspended for one year after a university Title IX investigation.
Mixon was involved in an altercation with a female OU student that turned violent and ended with Mixon punching her and breaking multiple bones in her face in July 2014. He was suspended for the entire season.
MORE AWARDS TO COME FOR OSU'S RUDOLPH?
As Mason Rudolph took his place in a line of award recipients at the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame on Tuesday, he and Bedlam football rival Darlington gave each other a slight head nod and a smile.
Darlington, a decorated OU senior offensive lineman, is going into his last season with the Sooners, but Rudolph is just beginning what appears to be a budding career with Oklahoma State. While he's been touted as a darkhorse Heisman Trophy candidate entering this season, Rudolph received the first true hardware of his OSU career at the 31st Annual All-Sports Scholar Athlete Awards Luncheon.
The 6-foot-4 quarterback was named one of 10 state school players honored as College Players of the Year by the Oklahoma chapter of the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame. The award highlights student athletes who "have excelled on the playing field, in their classrooms and in their communities."
"I'm only a rising sophomore, so I haven't really done a lot to receive a whole lot," Rudolph said. "I'm very honored. Obviously, it's an incredible award and, like you mentioned, Ty (Darlington) he's a great guy. I've gotten to know him pretty well. It's a great group of guys seems like, and an overall great afternoon."
Based on the end of his season with OSU, leading the Cowboys to consecutive wins in Bedlam against OU and in the Cactus Bowl against Washington, there's more hardware in the future for Rudolph.
"I think the whole team has done a great job of really getting after it this offseason," Rudolph said. "Winter program went great, spring practice went great. We're fired up and looking forward to bigger things this fall."
Along with Rudolph and Darlington, the following state school players were honored as their school's recipient of the College Player of the Year award: Landon Chappell, University of Central Oklahoma; Chace Green, Langston University; Tanner Hallford, Oklahoma Panhandle State University; William House, Southern Nazarene University; Justin Schanbacher, Northwestern Oklahoma State University; Garrett Stafford, University of Tulsa; Ty Watkins, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College; Cole Weber, East Central University.
MCGINNIS MEETS SWITZER FOR FIRST TIME
Former Heritage Hall quarterback Connor McGinnis had a chance to meet legendary coach Barry Switzer and was surprised to learn Switzer remembered him from a high school game two years ago.
“That was really cool,” McGinnis said. “He said a few really nice things about me. I guess he came to watch one of our games — the Casady game two years ago.
“Just the fact that he came and he took his time to come out and watch one of our games and to remember me two years later that means a lot.”
McGinnis is a 6-foot-5 dual-threat quarterback who is walking on for the Sooners. He was honored at the luncheon as the Jim Thorpe Player of the Year and also a runner-up in The Oklahoman’s Bob Colon Scholarships.
After leading Heritage Hall to the Class 3A state championship last season, some questions remained as to whether he would play quarterback, receiver or defensive back in college. He’s working to address those issues by cleaning up his throwing motion.
“Going to the college level everything is much quicker, so making my release quick enough for the college level,” McGinnis said.
JIM THORPE WINNERS HONORED
The annual Jim Thorpe Player of the Year Award winners were honored at the banquet.
Winners include Edmond Memorial’s Colin Simpson (baseball); Deer Creek’s Dakota Vann (girls basketball) and Owasso’s Shake Milton (boys basketball); Henryetta’s Daisy VanMeter (girls cross country) and Norman North’s Ben Barrett (boys cross country); Jenks’ Mackenzie Medders (girls golf) and Edmond North’s Tyson Reeder (boys golf); Jenks’ Marlo Zoller (girls soccer) and Heritage Hall’s Garrett McLaughlin (boys soccer); Edmond North’s Ally Robertson (girls swimming) and Norman North’s Justin Wu (boys swimming); Southmoore’s Jordan Henry (girls tennis) and Mount St. Mary’s Blake Crawford (boys tennis); Vinita’s Carsyn Spurgeon (girls track) and Westmoore’s Calvin Miller (boys track); Elgin’s Jentry Holt (volleyball); and Stillwater’s Joe Smith (wrestling).

Even though sports were a big part of his life growing up in small-town Oklahoma — he went on to play college baseball — coaching never appealed to him. He didn’t want to be the guy in the polyester shorts, the striped tube socks and the Spot-Bilt shoes. He didn’t want to be the stereotype.

Phil McSpadden, college softball's most successful coach, thought his future was in something else

By Jenni Carlson | May 4, 2015

Phil McSpadden never dreamed he’d hold a national coaching record.
Then again, he never dreamed he’d coach.
Even though sports were a big part of his life growing up in small-town Oklahoma — he went on to play college baseball — coaching never appealed to him. He didn’t want to be the guy in the polyester shorts, the striped tube socks and the Spot-Bilt shoes. He didn’t want to be the stereotype.
Even after McSpadden had spent a couple decades coaching, first at high schools around Oklahoma, then at Oklahoma City University, he still went to the office in business casual, changed into his gear for practice, and changed back to the khakis and button down for the drive home.
“Then, it finally hit me,” he said, “‘I guess this is what I’m doing for the rest of my life.’”
Earlier this spring, McSpadden became the all-time winningest coach in the history of college softball. No one has won more. Not any of the legends like Fresno State’s Margie Wright or Arizona’s Mike Candrea. Not any of the coaches who will bring their teams to Oklahoma City later this month for the Women’s College World Series.
And it was obvious by the number of players who returned to OCU from far and wide the night McSpadden broke the record — now at 1,475 games and counting — that he isn’t the goofy stereotype.
Not even close.
***
Phil McSpadden’s dad was a businessman. Same for his older brother. He figured his life’s work would be in the business world, too.
After graduating from Oral Roberts with a business management degree, he went to work for the funeral home back home in Vinita. The owner was the wealthiest man in the northeastern Oklahoma town, so McSpadden figured he should take the job.
“And that wasn’t my cup of tea,” he said.
McSpadden realized that even though he’d played college ball, he hadn’t quite had his fill. He decided to give baseball coaching a try.
He started out at small high schools where he was an assistant football coach in the fall and the baseball coach in the spring. But as he had success and looked to move up to higher classifications, he found the schools wanted their baseball coach to coach softball in the fall.
McSpadden turned down the first baseball-softball offer that came his way. He’d never even seen a fast-pitch softball game, after all. But after some more thought, he took the job at Dewey.
He asked one of his mentors for some advice on coaching softball and more specifically girls.
“You coach ’em like guys,” McSpadden was told. “You just don’t pat ’em on the butt.”
***
Phil McSpadden might not have known anything about softball when he started, but it sure didn’t show.
Dewey not only went to state but also won three state titles under McSpadden. Those were the school’s first championships in any sport.
More success followed at Ponca City, but still, McSpadden was stunned when OCU came calling. He liked the challenge of moving up to higher classifications. But he’d never considered the college level.
When OCU offered the job, he turned it down.
“I still thought of myself as a baseball coach,” he said. “Softball was just what I did in the fall.”
A week later, OCU called back with a bit more money. McSpadden wasn’t concerned about the size of the paycheck, but the fact that OCU still wanted him made him wonder.
“Maybe God’s trying to tell me something,” he said.
He took the job in 1988, and in his seventh season, OCU won the national title. Then, it did it again the next season. And the next. And the next.
McSpadden won with a style that didn’t always sit well in the softball world. At that time, most college games were low-scoring affairs. If the teams combined for four or five runs, that was an offensive explosion.
“Softball was, you get a runner on first, you bunt her over,” McSpadden said. “And you’d see this all the time with one out, they’d bunt her to third. I’m going, ‘What? I can’t squeeze now. A sac fly is not going to work.’”
Small ball ruled the day, and McSpadden wasn’t against it. But he wasn’t against swinging away either.
His baseball roots carried over to softball — and he wasn’t always well received because of it. When he’d be out recruiting, he’d regularly hear people say that players shouldn’t commit to him.
“He teaches that baseball swing,” detractors would say. “He’s just a baseball coach. He’s not a softball purist.”
His response?
“Well, thank you.”
Even though the free-swinging, high-powered style is seen across the country now, it overwhelmed most of OCU’s NAIA opponents back in the ’90s. But despite McSpadden’s bunch winning four consecutive titles, he still wasn’t sure of his place in the world. Did he really want to coach forever? Was this really his life’s work?
“By man’s standard, I’m successful,” he thought, “but am I doing anything significant?”
He was thinking long and hard about getting out of coaching.
Then one day, the dad of one of McSpadden’s former players called. They hadn’t spoken in quite some time, but the dad wanted to say thank you.
“I just want to tell you,” he told the coach, “my daughter wouldn’t be a Christian if not for you.”
McSpadden stopped thinking about leaving coaching.
***
Phil McSpadden will see folks panhandling occasionally when he’s on his way to work near OCU’s urban campus near NW 23 and Penn.
Chances are good, he will give them money.
“Because I want to believe they’re telling me the truth,” he said. “The glass is half full off the field.”
He paused and steeled his gaze.
“On the field, the glass is half empty, and it always has been.”
McSpadden tells players up front about his demeanor. He will get angry. He will yell. Even though he promises he’ll never cuss at a player, he will cuss. The Lord’s name won’t be taken in vain or anything like that.
“But I’m gonna hold you accountable,” he tells players.
He expects his players to be able to do what he recruits them to do. So, he doesn’t give a ton of compliments; upperclassmen have been known to tell freshmen to savor it when they get a compliment. McSpadden is trying to be more positive and has even asked one of his assistants to tell him if a certain player needs a squeeze on the shoulder or a word of encouragement.
He tells his gals that if he’s yelling at them about making a play, it’s because he knows they can make the play.
“If I criticize, that’s really a compliment,” he tells players. “I know you’re better than that.”
His whole coaching philosophy is summed up in eight words painted on the wall above his desk.
DON’T WHINE, DON’T COMPLAIN, AND DON’T MAKE EXCUSES.
That mantra has not only won lots of ballgames but also resonated with players.
On the night in early April that McSpadden broke the national record, nearly two dozen former players attended the game. One gal from his very first OCU team even came all the way from Houston.
“I would’ve never thought … ” McSpadden said, his eyes welling with tears.
Having those alums back and being able to hug their necks was the best thing about breaking the record.
Oh, sure, McSpadden is competitive. He loves the chess match of games. He enjoys the challenge of building teams and improving players. That’s good stuff.
But building relationships? Having an influence? Making a mark?
That’s the best stuff.
Phil McSpadden still marvels when he thinks about where coaching has taken him. He has been able to do something he loves for more than three decades. He never dreads going to work. He cashes a paycheck for something he really likes doing.
“This has been much more enjoyable,” he said, “than I ever thought it would be.”
It has been a dream.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at (405) 475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok or view her personality page at newsok.com/jennicarlson.

Martin took control of the starting position in Week 3 and has become the state’s leading rusher and huge reason Harrah won its first district title since 1971 with an upset of Ada last week.

High school football: Harrah's Grant Martin takes advantage of opportunity

By Jacob Unruh | Nov 10, 2014

HARRAH — Grant Martin has spent his high school career in obscurity.
He rarely touched the football last season for Vinita in a pass-heavy offense. When he moved to Harrah this summer, he remained in the background through the early part of the season in a limited role.
Not anymore.
Martin took control of the starting position in Week 3 and has become the state’s leading rusher and huge reason Harrah won its first district title since 1971 with an upset of Ada last week.
In that win alone, he rushed for 354 yards and four touchdowns. It was his second game in three weeks with more than 300 yards and one that earned him The Oklahoman’s staff pick for Player of the Week.
“I didn’t see this coming at all,” said the 5-foot-7, 170-pound Martin. “I figured I’d come down here and have a couple carries. I knew I’d have a chance to be something, but never knew I was going to be anything like this.”
Harrah (7-3) hosts perennial powerhouse Clinton (5-5) on Friday in uncharted territory as the favorite. This comes after an 0-2 start to the season and loss of running back Hunter Goodwin to a broken ankle.
The Panthers turned that negative start around, and it started with Martin.
“I think it was just meant to be,” Harrah coach Phil Webb said. “He was looking for an opportunity, looking for a chance and he got it.”
Martin has 2,389 yards and 34 touchdowns this season on 280 carries. He’s averaging 8.5 yards per carry and 238.9 yards per game behind a big, impressive offensive line anchored by junior Logan Roberson.
“I guess I’m just the guy that gets to look good behind the line,” Martin said.
He’s done plenty of that, even carrying the ball 51 times in a loss to Tuttle earlier this season that was riddled with lightning delays and heavy rains.
It’s something he feels he never would have been able to do in Vinita, along with getting a chance to beat a storied program like Ada.
“I’ve never played in a game like that before,” Martin said. “At Vinita, we were a two-win ballclub, so I never really got to play in many big games. It was just awesome.”
Now he’ll get a chance to keep playing in big games starting this week, and at the same time continue finding the spotlight.
“He’s the best kept secret in the state and he’s proved that week in and week out,” Webb said. “He doesn’t have any bad games. He is what he is.”

They’ll both fight on Saturday night at Remington Park as part of a six-fight card. Kenzie Witt is set to take on Lucas Queen in the opening bout at 8, with Trey Lippe facing Tim Bronson later in the evening, both in heavyweight bouts.

Boxer Tommy Morrison's sons trying to make a name for themselves in the ring

By Trent Shadid, Staff Writer | Nov 5, 2014

Brothers Trey Lippe and Kenzie Witt have stepped into the boxing ring.
Those names probably don’t sound familiar to boxing fans, but their father — former World Boxing Organization champion Tommy Morrison — likely brings back some memories for those who followed the sport in the 1990s.
Morrison’s sons are off to a promising start, Lippe at 5-0 and Witt at 1-0 with another win as an amateur. None of their opponents have made it out of the second round.
They’ll both fight on Saturday night at Remington Park as part of a six-fight card. Witt is set to take on Lucas Queen in the opening bout at 8, with Lippe facing Tim Bronson later in the evening, both in heavyweight bouts.
Morrison’s sons have no definite expectations, but each have lofty hopes as they embark on their own boxing careers.
Maybe the only thing they know for sure, this isn’t about simply following in the footsteps of a former boxing superstar.
“We want to establish our own name,” said Lippe. “We aren’t just trying to copy him.”
Witt said: “This is about us. It’s just kind of crazy who we are, but I’d be trying to do this all the same way no matter whose kid I am.”
Above all else, they wanted to get back to being athletes.
Lippe, 25, now lives in Tulsa after staring on the football field in high school at Vinita and going on to play defensive end at Central Arkansas.
Witt, 24, resides in Bartlesville and was once a basketball standout at Colcord before turning down scholarship opportunities to join the workforce out of high school.
Lippe and Witt didn’t grow up in the way you’d expect children of a professional athlete who made more than $10 million in his career and once played the role of Tommy “The Machine” Gunn in Rocky V.
“We didn’t reap the benefits of anything,” Witt said.
Having been too young to understand Morrison’s fame and subsequent downfall after testing positive for human immunodeficiency virus in 1996, Lippe and Witt have relied mostly on stories from those close to him to understand what their father went through.
Today, they don’t harbor any harsh feelings for what their father once described as a “permissive, fast and reckless lifestyle” that likely led to contracting HIV. Instead they’ve developed a sense of pride based on his accomplishments in the ring and expressed thankfulness for time spent with him, especially later in his life.
For Lippe, who wears a replica of his father’s trunks with “TOMMY” written across the belt, the relationship with his father was somewhat distant. He describes Morrison as a fun-loving friend more than a father figure.
Witt explains Morrison’s personality in much the same way, but calls him the only father he ever knew.
“He was on me all the time,” Witt said. “I was around him a lot in his later years and I constantly got ragged on, because he always wanted me to do something good with my life. It was a little different from time to time, but it all worked out.”
There’s also a protective attitude toward how their father was viewed and treated, specifically in northeastern Oklahoma, after his HIV diagnosis. Lippe and Witt both recalled a story they’d been told of the “Home of Tommy Morrison” sign being taken down in Jay shortly after the press conference announcing he was HIV positive.
“In small towns like that, everyone is paranoid and people don’t know what they’re talking about,” Witt said. “He told me a lot of times he would walk into the gym and people would walk circles around him and not want to get close to him. They didn’t know anything about it.”
While their boxing careers are about trying to accomplish success for themselves, Lippe and Witt know their father would be proud. They’ve even set goals as lofty as the ones Morrison once achieved.
“Hopefully at some point down the road I at least fight for the belt,” Lippe said. “I think I can achieve that.”
Witt said: “I’m right there with him. If we’re going to do it, go big or go home.”